Allure Happy Halloween Cruise min-review 30 Oct 2016

[poz222]

Mini-Review Allure of the Seas, Oct 30 Halloween Cruise.

 

First off, we are HALLOWEEN JUNKIES... I love love love Halloween and tend to go all out. But this year instead of a party (too much work), we decided to take a cruise! We live in South Florida and cruise a lot, but not too much with RCCL and first time on this class of ship.

 

We Used the park N Fly near the port and cannot emphasize enough how wonderful they were! Easy drop off (Valet) I reserved online for @$8 a day… They had shuttles ready and waiting to drop off at the port! Pickup was just as easy with several shuttles that drop you right at your car in the lot! Super-efficient, highly recommend.

 

We arrived at 11:30, check in was very fast (gold), a few minutes waiting and we were walking onboard by 12:30.

This was our first time on an Oasis Class ship and first Halloween cruise… We were justifiably impressed walking onto the promenade! Spectacular. We went for lunch at Park Café (salad and roast beef) before the lines formed and grabbed a drink at the trellis bar! We hung out in Central park till the cabins opened.

 

We had Oceanview Balcony cabins (2) 7300 and 02 which were adequate for our needs. We loved the location being fairly close to the elevators, easy 1 floor up to Central Park, 1 down to Boardwalk, and 2 down to Promenade… Super convenient and we will book this floor/area next trip too! With the balcony divider open it made for a nice space with large enough balcony.

Halloween was a blast onboard. I went all out with a snow globe costume which seemed to be a big hit! They had a parade but no prizes  Boo! But it was fun and there were so many people out in costumes!

We are generally not show people, but being on this class of ship, we decided we need to see some shows and we were very impressed! Mamma Mia was good and we liked a few of the characters, Blue Planet has impressive scenery but the music was kinda cheesy, The Ice Games Ice show was great but the How to Train your Dragon got a bit lost in translation (you def had to know the movie to get the show), and unfortunately we missed Ocean Aria as we had reservations the last night and it poured rain!!! We also did Karaoke a few nights and listened to the Latin Band. We also saw the comedian who was very good. We did not get to the disco or Dazzles, next time I guess? We had 2 with drink package (we are the frozen cocktails/Wine people) the other 2 just got beers (they eliminated the beer/wine package and the only one sold is the ultimate package which is not worth it for a few beers a day). We cashed in points for a Starbucks gift card and used that for 1 coffee and the package for the other one.

 

We had quite a bit of onboard credit so we all did the 5 night dining package for $115… it were AMAZING! Best food on any cruise. Now we managed to not eat once in the Windjammer (not a buffet type) or the MDR… For our 5 nights we did Izumi Hibachi (great, but note it will cost $5 - $10 pp above the package plan). We managed to get Izumi for the first night. We booked the package immediately when boarding and made the reservations then, I asked for Izumi and got it no problem.

 

Other than Izumi, we did Giovanni’s (Food was good, but we had a VERY overbearing waiter from Turkey who insisted on bringing what HE thought we should order to the table and he was sooooo LOUD and the place itself was very loud so not an overall great experience this time ). We did 150 Central Park and the beef short ribs were to die for! Nice fancy evening! We did Chops 2 times, both great (ordered regular steaks not the dry aged, and on formal lobster night they brought lobsters to the table in Chops) and Sabor once with the package and once on our own (it is like IMPOSSIBLE to eat $30 worth of food there) loved it! So next time we will just pay as we go for Sabor. We are not Brazilian Steakhouse fans so we skipped that one. Lunches we did Park Café, Giovanni’s once and just picked here and there. Breakfast we did Room service a few days, Park Café and Johnny Rockets and Wipeout café once. It was all great! The MDR has been hit and miss for us so it was so good to have the specialty dining every night, well worth the extra $115 pp.

 

We had a very active Roll call group and 118 people signed up for the Meet and Mingle. Unfortunately, at least half did not get the invite and it was held in the Karaoke bar at 9:30… So many of the main people organizing stuff did not get to attend so that was a big fail on the part of RCCL. It was also only about 10 minutes with the asst cruise director giving out a few trinkets… But our group organized a Slot Pull after the M&G (44 signups) and a Cabin Crawl/Poker Run (50 signups) on day 4 which was a blast! Plus an informal meetup on embarkation day at the Sky Bar.

 

We have been to all the ports so we just went to our beach bar (Sunset Bar) in Cozumel, Big Mammas for some amazing fried fish platter and ceviche in Costa Maya (amazing place and lunch) and we stayed onboard in Nassau! We never really found lines for anything as the passengers are very well spread out so as not to have a concentration anywhere. Bartenders were generally good with not too long of waits. They need more servers in the Solarium but they were plentiful at the pool deck.

 

Finally, this was the 3 sisters meet up cruise which was really amazing to see. The funny part was cruising just off our coast all day on Friday! I am from Boca and we were just offshore all day which was kinda weird to be on a cruise just offshore from home! The meet up was about 1.5 hours of waving and looking at the other ships. The Allure was in the middle so we had the Oasis on one side and the Harmony on the other (so not just congested on one side)... We waved at the helicopter, each other and enjoyed the day! Everyone seemed to be out on deck (including many from the crew).

 

We decided Halloween cruises are the way to go! Way easier than throwing parties as RCCL does the decorating, cooking, bartending and cleanup!!! We will be going again next year for Halloween too! Overall a great cruise, no major issues and great food and service.

 

That’s All… If you have any questions? LMK

 

[easyboy]

I saw the photos where the 3 sisters met. You were in luck to be one on her.

Glad you enjoyed your cruise. Thanks.

 

 

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[scottydog123]

Very original costume :)

[Biker19]

You were in luck to be one on her.

Glad you enjoyed your cruise.

 

Who wouldn't.:eek::p:cool:

[Espn]

We saw you in your costume by the Rising Tide bar in the Promenade, loved it.

[pasodancer]

Love your costume - very creative!

[crosby99]

We did Allure for Halloween a few years back...just recently found my old video:)

Did they do the haunted house this year in the disco? That was brilliant

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.